Review of Armadillo (2010) by Natalie M — 24 Mar 2012

A groundbreaking Cannes winner documentary about Danish soldier serving their six month military tour a stone throw away from Taliban occupied territory in northern Afghanistan. What sets Armadillo immediately apart from your traditional war films is the fact that the film is a documentary. This fact cannot be stressed enough and it puts the viewer up against a moral dilemma if the documentary is beyond good taste. Documentalizing a live war conditions with its horrors is beyond a doubt a touchy subject.

Armadillo follows a group of Danish soldiers from their departure to homecoming from Afghanistan war in 2009. The director Janus Metz Pedersen evens out the film's running time with the everyday lives of the soldiers with a few intensive and adrenaline pumping combat scenarios. Both these parts raised a political discussion at Denmark and rightly so. Military conditions are guaranteed to change the soldiers state of mind which becomes apparent during the document and might be too much for some viewers to take in. The document presents the everyday lives of the soldiers and the combat situations with utmost realism. This includes the smutty porn films and mindless action shooter gaming of the routine filled days of the soldiers and the shocking combat situations where the soldiers take credit for liquidating the enemies and filming of the fallen enemies.

Cramming 6 months worth of content into a 1h 40min documentary proves to be a challenge for the director and thus the relatively brief combat scenarios eat a big proportion of the running time leaving a smaller part for the routines and boredom of barrack life. This is only slight drawback and does not hinder the overall resolve of Armadillo. The daring director and his film crew with the actual soldiers deserves a big credit for risking their lives to make this unique documentary. The end result is shockingly realistic filmatization of war which brings the gruesome reality of war to your living room.